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Beltone chairman to sell stake: Egypt bourse

CAIRO: The chairman of Beltone Financial is to sell his 20 percent stake in the Egyptian investment bank to Arabiyya Lel Estithmaraat (AIC), the stock exchange said on Wednesday. Egyptian investment firm AIC was already building a stake in Beltone and the acquisition takes its holding to 30 percent. "Our outlook for the future of …

CAIRO: The chairman of Beltone Financial is to sell his 20 percent stake in the Egyptian investment bank to Arabiyya Lel Estithmaraat (AIC), the stock exchange said on Wednesday.

Egyptian investment firm AIC was already building a stake in Beltone and the acquisition takes its holding to 30 percent.

"Our outlook for the future of investment banks in Egypt in the upcoming period is positive, especially for Beltone, but we don’t seek the complete acquisition of the company’s shares," AIC Chief Executive Mohamed Metwalli told Reuters.

AIC said it paid LE 16 per share for the stake, which would value the sale at LE 26.8 million ($4.4 million).

Beltone’s thinly-traded stock, which was suspended earlier in the session, resumed trading at LE 14 per share. AIC’s stock was trading 1.8 percent higher and the benchmark index was up 0.9 percent.

Beltone said last month its chairman — Aladdin Saba — was in talks to sell his stake in the bank, while AIC said it was seeking to buy the holdings of several Beltone shareholders.

Egyptian investment banks were hit especially hard when foreign investors pulled out of the country and trade on the stock exchange slumped following an uprising that ousted president Hosni Mubarak in February last year.

According to Reuters data, Beltone has a market capitalization of LE 117 million. As of June 30, Saba owned 19.99 percent.